Gila Woodpecker | Melanerpes uropygialis

Voice

The most frequently heard sound is a rolling, rather harsh churrr, given from the top of a cactus or a post and heard from every side in the morning. It also gives a sharp, rapidly repeated yip-yip-yip and, especially in spring, a plaintive kee-oo, kee-oo, kee-oo. The drum is long and even in tempo and carries best on dead branches and wooden posts, which let the sound travel far.

Identification

A medium-sized woodpecker of 20 to 24 centimetres with a finely barred black-and-white back, rump and wings, contrasting with a plain greyish-brown head, neck and underside; the belly is often tinged pale yellow. The male has a small, round red cap in the centre of the crown, which the female lacks. In flight white patches at the base of the primaries show as a narrow white crescent on the dark wing, and the central tail feathers are barred black and white. Young birds resemble the adults but are duller.

Confusion species

Golden-fronted Woodpecker, which approaches the Gila Woodpecker in Mexico, has a yellow-orange nape and yellow nasal tufts, and its central tail feathers are black rather than barred. Red-bellied Woodpecker of the east has a similar back but always a red nape, and in the male the whole crown is red. Ladder-backed Woodpecker is clearly smaller, with a black-and-white striped head. Gilded Flicker shares the saguaros but is brown with a black breast band, a spotted belly and an unbarred white rump.

Habitat

Low desert with columnar cacti, especially saguaro in Arizona and Sonora and cardón in Baja California, and also riparian woodland with cottonwood, willow and mesquite along rivers and dry washes (arroyos). It usually stays below about a thousand metres. It occurs in villages and towns: gardens with palms and fruit trees, feeders, street trees and parks in places such as Phoenix and Tucson are part of its regular territory.

Range and movements

Resident in extreme south-eastern California along the lower Colorado, extreme southern Nevada, most of southern Arizona and south-western New Mexico. In Mexico the range covers Baja California, Sonora and Sinaloa and extends south into west-central Mexico. Three subspecies are recognised: the nominate form on the mainland, cardonensis in northern and brewsteri in southern Baja California. In California the species has declined sharply and is now present only locally.

• Resident
• Winter
• dark = core range, pale = thinly spread

Where and when to look

Walk through a saguaro forest or a desert suburb around Tucson in the early morning and listen for the rolling churrr: the bird is then often perched on top of a cactus arm or a lamp post. Look at the cavities in the saguaros too. The cactus seals each excavated hole with a hard, corky wall, the so-called 'boot', which survives for decades after the cactus has died and can sometimes be found lying loose on the desert floor.

Conservation

The IUCN rates the species as Least Concern (LC). Partners in Flight puts the world population at about 1.5 million breeding birds, but numbers are falling: if the current decline continues, the species will lose another half by 2068. Causes are the loss of desert and riparian woodland to farming and development, and competition for nest cavities with the introduced European Starling. In California it is on the state list as endangered; in Arizona it is still common.

Scientific name

Melanerpes uropygialis | (Baird, 1854)

Spencer Fullerton Baird described the species in 1854 as Centurus uropygialis, from a specimen from Bill Williams Fork of the Colorado, then New Mexico Territory and now Arizona. Because the species was later moved to Melanerpes, author and year stand in parentheses. Melanerpes is from Greek melas 'black' and herpēs 'creeper'; uropygialis refers to the rump (uropygium). The English and Dutch names refer to the Gila, the river that runs through the heart of the range.